Garamendi hopes to reshape role as lieutenant governor

Sunday

Nov 26, 2006 at 12:01 AM

MOKELUMNE HILL - John Garamendi, who on Nov. 15 had his first official meeting since Election Day with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, has invited the governor to hang out in a chummier fashion at his Mother Lode ranch to ride horses.

David Siders

MOKELUMNE HILL - John Garamendi, who on Nov. 15 had his first official meeting since Election Day with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, has invited the governor to hang out in a chummier fashion at his Mother Lode ranch to ride horses.

That is because the incoming lieutenant governor would like to have the kind of relationship with Schwarzenegger in which he could be a significant player in the making of health care, education and environmental policy.

To be a lieutenant governor with that influence would be unprecedented.

Lieutenant governors, having few official duties, rarely have shaped policy. And the state's No. 2 post typically has been no more than a platform from which to launch a gubernatorial campaign.

The record of dysfunction is vivid: Gov. Earl Warren hid bills in a lock-box to prevent his No. 2 from noodling with them when he left the state; Lt. Gov. Mike Curb appointed a judge when Gov. Jerry Brown was out of state, only to have the governor withdraw the appointment upon his return; and Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante found his parking spots at the Capitol reassigned after a spat with Gov. Gray Davis.

Even when the relationship has been congenial, as it was with Gov. George Deukmejian and Lt. Gov. Leo McCarthy, the lieutenant governor has had no real pull. Never has a man in that position been involved in a substantial policymaking role, political analyst Tony Quinn said.

"The governor has his own people," Quinn said. "And the lieutenant governor is just not one of them."

If Garamendi, 61, is to play any role in the Schwarzenegger administration, it likely will be that of a salesman, analysts said.

Garamendi is a conservative Democrat who once represented San Joaquin County in the Legislature and whose younger sister, Celeste Garamendi, lost in her bid for mayor of Tracy earlier this month. John Garamendi has stronger ties to environmental and labor groups than does the Republican governor, and Schwarzenegger could benefit from Garamendi's ability to sell policies to those groups, said former state Sen. Patrick Johnston, a Stockton Democrat.

Schwarzenegger recently has said health care will be one of his priorities in 2007. Although he vetoed legislation that would have created a state-run health care system last year and has not detailed how he plans to help the state's 6 million uninsured, his remarks have encouraged many Democrats, including Garamendi.

Garamendi is an experienced health care advocate. As state insurance commissioner, he released a report last year in which he warned that the state's health care system is in a "death spiral" - and he said he could help the governor enact universal health care or something close to it.

Garamendi said that if the governor's legacy is universal health care, his own could be showing the governor how to achieve it. Garamendi said his experience and proximity to the governor's office puts him in a position to be relevant.

"(Schwarzenegger's) a smart fellow," Garamendi said at his Mokelumne Hill ranch, where he was three days after Election Day to vaccinate and tag his calves. He said he intended to start talking with the governor about health care when the two met Wednesday.

A spokeswoman for the governor said the relationship between Schwarzenegger and Garamendi is "wonderful," and the governor intends to work with Garamendi.

Tim Hodson, director of the Center for California Studies at California State University, Sacramento, said a cordial relationship is different than a meaningful one. Hodson doubted Garamendi would have any policy role in the governor's administration.

Never has there been such a partnership, Hodson said. And in this case, it is highly unlikely that Schwarzenegger is "going to turn to a lieutenant governor of another party and say, 'I want you to spearhead my health care reform,' " he said. "It's not going to happen."

Quinn said Garamendi, who ran for governor and lost in the 1994 Democratic primary, would be wise to "get around the state, make sure everybody knows you so you can run for governor."

Garamendi has not said whether he will run for governor in 2010, but analysts expect him to. Garamendi said he has four years "to be the best lieutenant governor ever in California's history."

At his family's ranch, his wife, Patti, said people underestimate her husband.

"By the end of his four years as lieutenant governor," she said, "nobody's going to be saying, 'What does that position do?' "

Contact reporter David Siders at (209) 943-8580 or dsiders@recordnet.com. Visit his blog.